ARCHAEOLOGY's March/April 2009 cover story, "A Mummy's Life," tells of new research on the mummified remains of an Egyptian priestess named Meresamun who lived in Thebes around 800 B.C. Ensconced in a skintight coffin made of linen and plaster for almost 3,000 years, the issue's "cover girl" is also the highlight of an exhibition, The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt, on view at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum through December 6. In advance of the show, Meresamun was scanned using a state-of-the-art Philips Healthcare 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner. She is the only mummy ever subject to such advanced technology.

How an Egyptian Mummy Winds Up in Chicago

Scanning a 2,800-Year-Old Patient

What to Do with 30 Billion Individual Measurements

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Three-Quarter View

The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt

A Coffin Fit for a Priestess
Learn the fine art of fashioning a cartonnage (linen and plaster) coffin.